Bible Study Library

Dear Disciples:

One of the major reasons many Christians are reluctant to study the book of Revelation, and end-times prophecy in general, is that there are so many different ways people have interpreted some of the issues. There is a great deal about the end times that Christians agree on. But some of the topics are widely debated. That would be all well and good, but those debated topics are often intricately connected with other debated topics and ultimately take us down very different paths that affect things we believe about God.

It can get huge.

In our study of Revelation I’ve tried to avoid the debates where possible. I’ve said over and over that I’m going to teach it the way I best understand it and leave it to you to check. I don’t spend a lot of time talking about different ways of interpreting the relevant scriptures. It’s distracting.  However, sometimes we just need to do it, and this 3-part lesson is one of those times.

There is disagreement among sincere students of biblical prophecy about whether the church will be caught up to be with Jesus before the Great Tribulation period or after it.

Will Christians have to endure the tribulation?

This is one of those times when it seems like it would have been really nice for Jesus to have stated succinctly, “And Lo, I will come and take all of the church to Heaven [before/after] the Great Tribulation begins.” While He was at it, He could have answered several more questions that Christians debate.

But He didn’t.

In fact, it’s important for us to accept that Jesus didn’t think or communicate in those terms. The Bible isn’t written as a question/answer book. It’s not a dictionary, encyclopedia, textbook, or handbook for Christian debate. The Bible is much richer than that. It provides the story of God working with His people, His people both rejecting and serving Him and others, failures, successes, miracles, wisdom, laws, covenants, personal letters, poetry, promises, history, and much, much more. As we read it for answers, we need to stay very close not only to the text, but to the purpose for which the particular text was written.

And one more thing: We need to have full trust and confidence in God that if He is going to hold us accountable for something, He will let us know clearly. God is not malicious, not deceitful, not hoping to fool us through obscurity so that He can whack us for not knowing. Anything God didn’t spell out clearly is not a matter for judgment.

That said, there are matters of “solid food” for the spiritually mature to discern. There is a time in our Christian growth to “leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment” (Heb 6:1-2).

As long as we agree that “pre-trib/post-trib rapture” is one of those things, we can proceed.

I’ve been clear in our study that I believe the church will have to endure the tribulation. God’s people will be “sealed” in such a way as to protect them during that time.

I don’t believe there’s a full description anywhere of what that protection will consist of.

• It won’t be protection on our physical lives… Christians will be martyred during the tribulation
• It won’t be protection from suffering… Christians on the earth would have to endure things that affect the earth. For instance, in different stages one-third of the earth will suffer:
  • Destruction of all vegetation
  • The sea turning to blood
  • Water turning bitter and killing people
  • The sun, moon, and stars becoming dark
  • Scorpion-like locusts inflicting pain and torture
  • 200,000,000 horses killing a third of all mankind

Unless Christians aren’t in those parts of the world at that time (which would mean they weren’t doing their missionary work), it seems clear they would have to suffer those things, too.

But unanswered questions shouldn’t keep us from believing something. The Bible simply doesn’t elaborate on the nature of that protection.

If I were to speculate, I’d say the protection is simply spiritual preservation. I’d guess God will ensure that as bad as it gets, none of His own will turn away from their faith. No matter how terrible it becomes, Satan will not be able to gain a single soul that belongs to God.

I feel fairly certain that is the protection we receive from the seal. That is because I believe that the seal given to the 144,000 Jews in Rev 7:4 is the same seal given to anyone when they become Christians - the seal of the Holy Spirit:

• 2 Cor 1:21-22: “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.“
• Eph 1:13-14: “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession–to the praise of his glory.”

But the scripture nowhere states clearly that our seal of the Holy Spirit is the same seal the 144,000 Jews receive in the end times. It simply makes sense to me and meshes with other things I believe.

The hardest pill to swallow in believing in a post-tribulation rapture is that God’s primary concern isn’t with whether His people suffer and die physically.

Now, I’m not saying God cares nothing about human physical suffering. There are plenty of scriptures to the contrary. Moreover, in my own life — and probably yours too — God has repeatedly shown that He cares very much about suffering. Jesus healed the sick and fed the poor and charged us with taking care of the orphans and widows.

What I am suggesting is that when it comes down to the time when God is going to finally, once and for all, wipe out all evil, His primary concern won’t be whether His people endure physical pain and suffering — any more than His primary concern was with Jesus having to suffer physically when it was time to destroy the covenant of Law and usher in the covenant of Grace through the cross.

God and we are fighting a spiritual battle, and focusing on physical things would be misguided. In those times we will have to remember scriptures like “Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18) and “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Cor 4:17).

I hope my pre-tribulation brothers are right and I’m wrong. I don’t want to live through the tribulation!

The Case for a Post-Tribulation Rapture
None of what I’ve written above shows that the Bible teaches a post-tribulation rapture, and that is really what I want us to study in this lesson. So let’s dig into the scriptures.

I want to preface this study with just one more statement:
The Bible leaves plenty of open questions on this topic. Regardless of which side you come down on, there are questions you won’t be able to answer adequately, and those questions can be troubling. There’s nothing I’m going to say here that pre-trib believers haven’t considered before. I’m not going to settle a disagreement in this lesson that has been going on for a very, very long time and has had many people much smarter than me discussing it. I can only provide you what I believe is clear and reasonable. Your job is to search the scriptures to see if what I write is true (Acts 17:11).

Unfortunately, in my research I couldn’t find a good example on the Web of a “pre-trib believer” clearly and concisely laying out the reason for believing that way. Nor could I find a good example of a “post-trib believer” clearly and concisely laying out the reason for believing that way. In fact, what has happened is that most of what’s available out there is unspiritual mud-slinging in its tone. There may be good examples, but I haven’t found them.

To me, the strongest support for a pre-tribulation rapture is the idea that the early believers and apostles believed Jesus could come at any time.

The Bible does teach that Jesus will come like a thief in the night. And that could suggest that He will come suddenly.

But a thief doesn’t necessarily come suddenly, just unexpectedly. A thief could have done much preparation ahead of time to break into a bank. Perhaps he spent a good bit of time working with someone on the inside, made several trips to the bank to ask a lot of innocent-sounding questions, and acquired the building’s blueprints. But no one connected all the pieces. No one realized what was happening. And then one night — WHAM! - the vault was broken into and the money stolen.

No one expected it because they didn’t recognize the signs. But it wasn’t sudden. Imagine how different it would have been if the bankers had an informant who told them the thief’s plans ahead of time. They would have seen it coming and been prepared!

I believe Jesus will return like a thief in the night unexpected by those who are in the dark of night — unbelievers. I also believe Jesus has told us everything we need so that it won’t catch us by surprise. We have the informant and can recognize the signs ahead of time.

Does the scripture support this view? I think it is exactly what both Jesus and Paul were trying to say to us:

• In 1 Thess. 5:1-2 Paul wrote “Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.“
• Two verses later he wrote, “But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled” (1 Thess 5:4-6).

I think Paul’s point is that the day of the Lord will come unexpectedly to people who are asleep in the dark, not to those who are awake in the light.

       The Foundations Of Pre-Tribulation Rapture Teaching
From what I’m able to gather, in order to use the Bible to show the rapture happening before the Great Tribulation period, you have to believe three things:

1. That the letters to the seven churches in Rev 2-3 were not really written to seven real churches but that the churches are symbolic of seven periods of church history (and we currently live in the seventh period).
2. That the description in Revelation 4:1-2 — John being taken up in the spirit to look at things from a heavenly perspective – was symbolic of the rapture of the whole church:
   • “After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.“
3. That teachings of Jesus in Matthew 24 were solely about the Jews, not the church.

I find each of these beliefs to be accommodations. They are not in any way clear to me.

1. The letters to the seven churches appear to be written to seven very literal churches. We’ve discussed that already.
2. John being in the spirit in Heaven seems to describe his literal experience. I can see nothing that would suggest otherwise. We’ve also covered that.
3. And Jesus’ words were certainly to the Jews and anyone else listening, but to suggest that they were about something that would only affect Israel and not the church just seems very much of a stretch.

Maybe I’m wrong - there are certainly places in the Bible that mean something different than what they say on the surface. But I think the onus for demonstrating it is on the person who believes the passages mean something other than their plain meanings. There has to be very good reason for believing it; we can’t just decide that about a passage in order to accommodate our assumptions.

       The Foundations Of Post-Tribulation Rapture Teaching
I believe we should interpret scripture in the least complex way the passage will allow. I believe we should first take a plain reading of the text. If the context or genre doesn’t permit a plain reading, then we look to the rest of scripture and our knowledge of God to understand it better.

Let’s look at some of the things the Bible says very plainly:

1. Twice Paul also says it will happen after the last trumpet sounds:
   • 1 Thess 4:16-18 - “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.”
   • 1 Cor 15:51-52 - “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed– in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
2. Jesus placed His return after the Tribulation period:
   • Matthew 24:29-31 - “Immediately after the distress [tribulation] of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”
3. Jesus told us four times in John 6 that He will raise His people up in the “last day”:
   • John 6:39 - “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.”
   • John 6:40 - “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
   • John 6:44 - “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
   • John 6:54 - “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”       
     If we understand the “last day” to refer to “the end” then the resurrection definitely happens at the end - after the Great Tribulation.
4. Daniel, writing about the end times over 500 years before Christ, said the Antichrist and the Saints would battle against each other:
   • Daniel 7:21-25 - “As I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and defeating them, until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom. He gave me this explanation: `The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time.”
     ** Note: Nearly everyone agrees that “a time, times, and half a time” means 3.5 years (a year, 2 years, and half a year”) and that it refers to the tribulation period.
5. Paul describes the Antichrist as being in power and sitting in the temple of God when the rapture happens:
   • 2 Thess 2:1-4 - “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”

In other words, according to a plain reading of the above passages:

1. Christians who are dead and Christians who are alive will be taken up at the same time — with the last trumpet call. The dead will be raised imperishable and the rest will be changed.
2. Jesus will return and gather His people after the Great Tribulation
3. Jesus called the time when he will raise His people up “the last day”
4. The Antichrist and the Saints will be on the earth at the same time
5. Jesus will come and we will be gathered to Him after the Antichrist does his thing

Regarding the above, there is ambiguity in some of the passages as to whether the resurrection or the rapture of the saints is in mind. However, if we keep in mind the first point — that both of those will happen at the same time — then it doesn’t affect the timing we’re studying.

That’s enough for one lesson. Next week we will continue this Focus Study on the Post-Tribulation rapture.

Please do one thing as you turn away from this lesson. No matter what you believe about this topic, make sure it accounts in some way for the plain meaning in the above scriptures (even if you feel they plainly teach something different than I’m saying).

Let’s make sure we learn from the scriptures rather than instruct them.